Health Hackathon aims to solve health and wellbeing challenges
By: News Archive
Health and technology specialists will come together this weekend in a bid to generate innovative solutions to sector challenges in an event supported by the University of East Anglia.
Norwich’s first ever Health Hackathon will take place on Saturday at the Centrum, at Norwich Research Park. The 12-hour collaborative event will see some of the region’s leading professionals tackle some of the most pressing health and wellbeing issues, such as living independently with dementia, childhood obesity and medication compliance.
The event is the brainchild of postgraduate entrepreneurship students at UEA’s Norwich Business School. Running from 8am to 8pm, participants will include developers, entrepreneurs, healthcare professionals, patients and designers, all tasked with creating novel ideas to solve problems posed by organisations including the Norfolk and Suffolk Dementia Alliance, the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and Healthy Norwich.
Participants will be introduced to each challenge over breakfast, before pitching their ideas and forming teams to brainstorm and develop solutions. Later in the day teams will present their concepts, hoping to catch the eye of the judging panel and be crowned winners. On offer is a £1,000 prize and an opportunity to present their idea at the international digital health congress Doctors 2.0 & You in Paris, in May.
One of the organisers Niall Cook said: "We can’t wait to see what the outcome of Norwich’s first ever health hackathon will be. It’s a great opportunity to explore new solutions to some of the sector’s most pressing issues by bringing the local health and tech communities together in this way."
Prof Jim Gazzard, of UEA’s School of Health Sciences, has supported the students with the creation of the Hackathon and said: “There are so many emerging challenges in medicine and healthcare. People are living longer which is great news, but often having more chronic and complex conditions. At the same time, there’s less money available to give patients the quality of life they expect and deserve. There's a real need for interesting, novel solutions to these problems."
The hackathon is supported by organisations including Norwich City Council, Norwich Research Park, the Norfolk & Suffolk Dementia Alliance, GP Appointment Line, Purple Tuesday and Wiggly-Amps, with prizes donated by digital health specialists Basil Strategies, Norfolk Network and Sandler Training.
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